GAUVIN: Civilian flagger pay scores one for keeping police on the job

Friday

Years of ranting and railing by pundits and politicians against the “high” cost of hiring policemen as flaggers on juicy extra-duty road jobs has crashed into a cement abutment.

Cape Cod Times reporter George Brennan reopened the public’s eyes on this issue recently when outing a road project in Sandwich where the state has mandated higher cost for civilian flaggers than policemen.

Dead End. This is where this issue seems to find itself in Massachusetts. Gov. Deval Patrick moved gingerly and at political risk a few years ago to allow civilian flaggers, under certain conditions, to lower costs for taxpayers, contractors and all end-users of the service.

Very few, if any, road details here in Barnstable use civilian flaggers. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. Long live the police union. If it is true and universal statewide that civilian flaggers are either 1) just as expensive or 2) cost even more with perks, then all the bluster and posturing over this has been another one of those flaky quixotic missions.

When the media sporadically took up the cause of trimming budgets by using civilian flaggers, policemen on road details in this town were being paid about $45 an hour. The thought then was that civilian flaggers could be had for about half that. Like, what’s so hard, minus wet weather conditions and a long-standing day, about waving a flag and flapping your arms?

Wrong.

Leave it to the state to complicate matters. Civilian flaggers these days need to know about MUTCD (pronounced moot’schid), the acronym for the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. They also need to complete an “approved” flagger training program, which most folks didn’t know existed, to become not just a flagger, but a “certified” flagger. If we know heady Massachusetts, flaggers will require a Ph.D. before too long. They also need to complete First Aid training that meets Red Cross or American Heart Association standards. Why not an M.D. in case there’s an accident near a worksite and somebody needs immediate brain surgery?

Surprisingly, certified flaggers are not required – yet - to run the two-minute mile in the event bomb-toting terrorists decide to create a monstrous pothole on the job site.

Developers and builders have been complaining for years that government regulations increase construction costs, albeit most rules do promote better products and/or safety. Likewise, regulating “certified” civilian flaggers reportedly getting from $32 to $38 an hour from the state’s $49-an-hour guideline paid to the contractor, presumably for perks like health insurance, adds to construction costs.

What reporter Brennan discovered is that policemen added to the Sandwich job were getting less than civilians hired by the contractor. The police flaggers get $41 an hour (without perks) compared to the $49 prix fixe by the state guideline for the civilian flag flappers.

Cost-saving wasn’t the only reason behind the push to use civilian flaggers, as do most other states. In times of unhealthy unemployment it seemed a prudent initiative to promote job-creation. Spread the wealth.

Never was it, as far as this column knows, a bias against the police, albeit there does exist resentment in some craftsmen’s quarters when police and/or firefighters also take on civilian jobs or operate small businesses that often undercut the competition and eat up civilian jobs.

Given the comparative flagger cost figures, and who knows how universally accurate they are, it seems the push is now only worth half the effort, that half being the creation of jobs for people who don’t have one. Cutting costs no longer seems a viable goal, with contractors being told by the state to charge the state $49 an hour for “certified” flaggers.

If there is a bias in all this, it is against private, service industry workers earning minimum wages. There are many cases on the Cape where office clerks, even, have accumulated considerable knowledge and skills but still earn less than $15 an hour after years on the job.

Now that raises a flag.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.